The Tale of Onesies: From Churchill to the 21st Century

Believe it or not, the story of the onesie starts with Winston Churchill. This great leader had his own idea of what ideal clothing should be. He called his design the “siren suit.” The original idea behind the onesie was for the soldiers to be able to put it on over their clothes in moments. That way, if there was an attack, they could be battle-ready a lot faster.

While it was not necessarily sleepwear, it was, simply put, a onesie. This great politician also had Turnbull & Asser make a pinstripe version of the “siren suit” for himself. Of course, keeping in mind his full figure.

His onesie became popular because he wore it when he met with the US President Franklin Roosevelt. He even had a suit onesie (but not a true suitsy just yet) that he wore to meetings.

Churchill loved wearing his onesies due to the warmth and comfort they provided. He would just zip the onesie over his pajamas in the case of air raids during the night. Apart from being the first onesie ever, Churchill’s onesie is also the most expensive one. In 2002, it was actually sold for almost 30,000 pounds. And that is impressive, when we adjust it for inflation, it is essentially a $55,000 onesie. And, as we can all see, onesies are still very popular.

However, as famous as they are now, they never felt like they were safe from fading away. It just doesn’t seem onesies have ever been a fashion item for the masses. And yet, this hilarious fashion statement is still surviving to this day. For that, we can thank a lot of celebrities who are open about their love of onesies.

One of the big modern-day moments for the onesie was given to us by none other than Ryan Gosling. He took his onesie to the Ellen DeGeneres show, and he had a lot of fun. Of course, he was not the only one. The insanely popular band One Direction has a video of themselves playing around in their onesies. And the popularity of the onesies doesn’t affect only celebrities.

After all, Sir Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, decided to bring it back to the world of politics following in the footsteps of Winston Churchill.

Of course, the onesie is not staying the same throughout the years. Namely, the recent years gave us new designs for this popular trend. Nowadays, you can even buy a onesie for two people. And, of course, we have to mention the suitsy. This type of onesie is something you can wear even to relatively formal events. It combines the serious look of a suit, with the comfort of a onesie. Much like what Churchill did with one of his original onesies, but better.